Opalescence
by Shipping Goddess
Summary: A look back to Amethyst's first fusion. Multiple POVs. Please read & review.
1. A Delicate Task

"Pearl."

"Yes?" The answer was instantaneous, as instinctual as breathing would be, if Gems required oxygen.

"I need you to do something important."

"You know I'd do anything for you."

Rose's tinkling laugh filled the air for a moment and Pearl could tell that the Quartz was smiling by the way her voice lilted.

"I know, my wonderful Pearl, but this isn't for me."

Pearl's hands paused from their current occupation of polishing one of her many swords, momentarily caught off guard and she looked up to face Rose, who was sitting across from her. She recovered quickly however and resumed her work. "Who then?"  
Rose inhaled slowly and looked squarely at Pearl before answering.

"Amethyst."

Pearl's face fell instantly into a look of mild disdain and she abandoned the sword in her lap altogether. The corners of Rose's mouth turned minutely downward at her reaction. Pearl immediately felt a wave of shame roll over her.

"I'm sorry." Pearl offered, half meaning it. "I just… I don't understand."

"I need you to teach Amethyst how to fuse," Rose said evenly.

Pearl's jaw dropped and her back straightened so violently it looked painful as she stumbled loudly over her words. "Wh- Rose, I- what? Why me?"

"Because she needs to learn. And you're a wonderful teacher."

Pearl blushed both from the compliment and from her own confusion.

"But why can't Garnet teach her?"

"Because I'm asking you to do it, Pearl." Rose's voice was loving but uncharacteristically stern. The revelation that in spite of Rose's words, this was more of a command than a request, threw Pearl even more. Rose hardly ever pulled rank; her stance of equality ever since the war had assured that. Pearl sniffed indignantly in an attempt to hide the sting and recover her composure. Rose could sense the shift in Pearl's demeanor and, in an attempt to comfort her without rescinding, she added, "Plus you're better at communicating and this is such a delicate task."

"You're the one I want to fuse with." Pearl offered quietly, looking down to hide how her face burned with the candor of her plea, even though she knew Rose wouldn't change her mind. "We're so strong together."  
Rose offered a half smile as she gently cupped Pearl's chin and looked into her eyes. "You'll never know how strong you and Amethyst could be unless you try. You two might be even stronger."

Pearl laced her own fingers between Rose's and slowly shook her head, though they both knew she would say yes.

"Please, my Pearl." Rose pleaded softly. "The Homeworld Gems will inevitably return someday and I need to make sure all of you will be safe. You know how much your safety means to me, especially after…" Rose trailed off softly but she didn't need to finish her sentence for Pearl to understand what she meant. "Amethyst already knows about fusion, but she's never actually managed to fuse with any of us. She needs a teacher. She needs a partner. She needs a friend. She needs you, my Pearl."

Pearl let her hand drop back into her lap.

"Of course, Rose."


	2. A Talk

Pearl stood outside the temple door, frowning. Rose and Garnet had gone off for a while to assure the Homeworld warp was still non-functional.

"I suppose now is as good a time as any," Pearl muttered to herself. She hesitantly curled her hand into a fist and called Amethyst's name as she rapped on the door twice. She could easily have manipulated the door to open to Amethyst's room on her own; but for the delicate task at hand, she thought courtesy would be the best approach. After several seconds of silence, the entrance opened to reveal Amethyst frowning and lazily rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Hello, Amethyst. I hope I'm not interrupting something important?" Pearl asked, half hoping the youngest Crystal Gem would say yes so she could go back to doing anything at all aside from the task at hand. Regardless, Pearl folded her hands in front of her waist and attempted to smile in such a way as to convey polite enthusiasm. Unfortunately, it came across as more of a nervous grimace.

"Uh, not really. What's with the face?" Amethyst asked, slightly unnerved.

"Face? My face? What's wrong with my face? Oh! My expression? This is the expression I always make when I'm, uh, casually asking a fellow team member to chat!" Pearl rambled.

Amethyst narrowed her eyes. "Riiight. Except you don't chat with me."

"O-of course I do! And I particularly enjoy chatting with you out on the beach!" Pearl said a bit too loudly as she reached for Amethyst's hand and began to lead her toward the sandy expanse outside the Temple entrance.

"What's with you, Pearl?" Amethyst asked. She let Pearl lead her toward the beach despite being completely thrown by the taller Gem's behavior. "Is everything okay?"

"Of course everything's okay! Why wouldn't it be? Why do you ask?" Pearl asked as she quickened their pace.

"Oh, I dunno, maybe because you're acting super weird?"

Pearl opened her mouth to reply but Amethyst cut her off before she could say anything. "And don't keep telling me you aren't because you obviously are! So tell me what's going on!" Amethyst shouted as she snatched her hand away from Pearl's grasp. The purple Gem crossed her arms and looked up at Pearl expectantly. To her surprise, Pearl threw her hands up over her face and started muttering. Tears rolled out from between her long, thin fingers and left wet trails down her pale arms. Amethyst was taken aback at the sudden change in demeanor.

"Pearl?" She asked, sounding small and scared. She reached up and touched the taller Gem's arm. "What's going on?"

After a short silence, Pearl wiped the tears from her face, sat down on the sand and pulled Amethyst into her lap.

"I'm sorry. I just… This happened so differently in my head." She sheepishly explained. "I just really wanted to get this right, and now I've already messed it all up."

Amethyst nuzzled her face against Pearl's shoulder briefly, slightly relieved to see her calmed down, though still very concerned about what had her so worked up in the first place. Pearl ruffled Amethyst's shoulder-length hair in response. They both enjoyed the embrace for a while before Amethyst broke the silence.

"Pearl?"

"Hmm?" Pearl replied, still absently stroking the smaller Gem's hair.

Amethyst pulled away slightly to face Pearl and asked with a child-like innocence "Get what right?"

Pearl sighed softly and offered up a small smile. She played with a handful of sand for a moment before she met Amethyst's earnest gaze and blushed lightly. Then she answered the younger Gem simply.

"Fusion."


	3. Advice

"And?" Rose asked eagerly, sitting back on her heels and squeezing Pearl's hand between her own. "What did she say?"

Pearl recalled her response exactly-the way Amethyst's eyes widened; how her mouth fell open into a small circle; how her cheeks blossomed into a deep lavender blush; how her fists clenched and unclenched nervously before she crossed her arms to hide it; how she let her hair fall over her face to try and hide her response altogether; but most of all, Pearl remembered thinking how lovely she looked in that honest moment-how she _wanted_ to fuse with Amethyst. She remembered how Amethyst backed off her lap and stood facing away from her.

She remembered rising slowly after a moment and walking up to her, putting her arms around the smaller Gem. She remembered grasping the small purple hand between her own slender fingers, turning Amethyst around to face her. She remembered sweeping Amethyst's hair behind her ear and looking deeply into her eyes, searching. She remembered what happened after.

She remembered that Rose was still waiting for an answer.

"She didn't say anything." Pearl hugged her knees to her chest and sighed. Rose's expression faltered momentarily, but she caught herself.

"Silence isn't always a bad thing, Pearl," she offered. "Maybe the timing was just bad."

"Yeah, maybe," Pearl said, sounding unconvinced. The tone of her voice pained Rose to her core. She hated hearing Pearl sound so defeated. And worse, she was partially responsible for this pain. She moved to sit beside Pearl and felt her lean against her shoulder. She wrapped an arm around her faithful Pearl and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"You should talk to Garnet," Rose said.

"Yes," Pearl replied. "I think I should."


	4. A Lesson

Garnet was lying on the sand below the Temple, stargazing and thinking. Inside her mind, but in a part separate from her own consciousness, she could feel Ruby and Sapphire discussing something amongst themselves. Pieces of their conversation quietly drifted into her own consciousness in a familiar psychic echo. She absently dug her fingertips into the sand behind her head as she waited to see whether they would disclose whatever they were thinking about. She was capable of injecting her own consciousness into the mental conversation but since the tone of their thoughts still seemed rather mellow, Garnet decided to continue enjoying the sight of Earth's heavens-the heavens she had fought a thousand-year-long war to be able to enjoy. Was it worth it? Most days.

Today it was. Soon there would be a rather impressive meteor shower. Sapphire had informed her so. She wanted to see it. Ruby was indifferent about the shower itself because she had seen hundreds upon hundreds of meteors during her travels before she and Sapphire had taken the leap, so to speak; but she was willing to do pretty much anything that would make Sapphire happy. So here they lay-here Garnet lay, rather.

The two of them had quieted down to a comfortable almost-silence. The show must be about to start. Garnet raised one of her hands to her sunglasses and they disappeared back into her gem. She smiled to herself as she caught a snippet of Ruby's thought that she'd rather be looking at Sapphire.

A flash of light briefly illuminated the Temple entrance and Garnet heard Pearl call her name.

"Out here," she replied. The lithe Gem walked out toward the beach and Garnet raised a hand to wave her over.

"Do you have a moment?" Pearl asked after she'd made her way to Garnet. She clasped her hands nervously in front of herself.

"Do you?" Garnet asked and patted the ground beside her. Pearl cocked her head to the side in confusion but sat anyway and hugged her knees to her chest. Garnet pointed toward the sky and Pearl followed her line of sight just as the first meteor fell. Pearl's eyes lit up as they watched the show in companionable silence.

"Wow," Pearl said after the meteor shower had ended. "That was really beautiful. Thank you for letting me watch it with you."

Garnet smiled and nodded. She sat up and phased her glasses back into place. Pearl's expression was unreadable.

"You wanted to talk," she prompted after a moment.

"A few days ago, Rose asked me to do something..." Garnet's expression gave nothing away; Pearl wished that she'd left her glasses off. The smaller Gem went back to staring at her own knees and began wringing her thin, pale hands. "For Amethyst. Or rather, with Amethyst." Garnet remained silent, observant. "She asked me to try to fuse with Amethyst."

"Hmm," was the only comment Garnet offered. Her expression remained even; Pearl took that as a sign to continue.

"I tried. I tried to fuse with her. We were right over there," Pearl vaguely indicated a spot somewhere down the beach with one hand, then snapped it back to hug her knees to her chest even tighter. "But we didn't… Couldn't. And Amethyst hasn't even looked at me since." Pearl finished with a soft sigh.

After a moment Pearl looked up and Garnet saw tears in her eyes. She wiped Pearl's pale cheek and caught the lone tear that dared to fall.

"And you want to know what to do now." It was a statement, not a question. Garnet was carefully sorting through her own thoughts as well as Ruby's and Sapphire's. Fusion was a difficult, multifaceted subject, and an incredibly personal one for all three of them, but especially for Garnet herself. An innumerable amount of thoughts were going through her mind. She wasn't upset that Rose had asked Pearl instead of her, but she was curious.

Pearl nodded once. She sat, quietly waiting for Garnet's advice. She knew that it was a lot to think through and didn't want to rush her.

"This," Garnet finally said.

"What?" Pearl asked.

"Spend time together. Talk."

"That's your big lesson? 'Talk'?"

"Get honest. Open up. Be vulnerable. Dig deep. Spend some time alone together. Fusion is about love and trust and light and the relationship between two Gems; you can't have any of those things if you don't even know each other."

"We've lived together since we found her in that Kindergarten! How could we not know each other?"

"You don't, Pearl. Neither of you have really taken the time to get to know anything about each other aside from what's necessary to coexist. Find common ground."

Garnet stood up and brushed the sand off her rear. She began walking slowly back to the Temple. Pearl remained there on the beach, thinking over everything.

A while later, she came to the sudden, slightly painful, guilt-inspiring realization that Garnet was right.


	5. A Visitor

Amethyst groaned loudly from atop her favorite pile of mismatched junk that she'd collected from the different places that the Crystal Gems had travelled. She needed something to do-something to keep her mind from wandering back to that night. It was all she'd been thinking about ever since it had happened. She had been humiliated in front of Pearl. Pearl said she wanted to fuse with her. Amethyst had been caught off guard, but she wasn't opposed to the idea. She looked up to Pearl. She wanted Pearl to like her; but Pearl was always so busy obsessing over Rose and her plans that she hardly even noticed Amethyst. The only times she did pay Amethyst any attention, it seemed like all she did was scold her for being too messy or too crass or too loud.

 _Whatever._ In Amethyst's mind, that's what made her, well, her. She _was_ messy and crass and loud, but those were some of her favorite things about herself. She wasn't afraid to be honest about expressing herself. She hated organizing. She loved collecting things. She liked to joke and laugh and eat stuff she found on the ground. She liked to have fun! So what if Pearl's idea of fun was different than hers?

But then, that night on the beach… Everything had seemed so different between them. Until Amethyst screwed it all up, anyway. She couldn't figure it out. She wanted to fuse with Pearl, but she just didn't know how. It was humiliating. And now Pearl would hate her forever because she couldn't do it right. She couldn't do anything right.

"Who needs her anyway?" Amethyst asked herself out loud. "I'm me and she's her and if she doesn't like me, well then who cares? I like me enough for the both of us!"

With a sudden surge of angry confidence, Amethyst threw down the handful of marbles she'd been playing with and heard them plink their way down to the bottom of the junk pile. She leapt to the ground and started rooting through the pile, looking for one of her favorite round things. She was going to get herself out of this funk and have fun today, whether she wanted to or not!

After several minutes of searching, Amethyst had burrowed her way completely into the junk pile with only her legs sticking out. She was startled by a muffled grunt that came from outside the pile. She climbed back out of the pile as quickly as she could and looked around for the source of the sound. It didn't take her long to spot Pearl, rubbing her arm and smiling sheepishly. Amethyst crossed her arms over her chest and waited.

"I called your name before I came in but I guess you didn't hear me from inside your… Garbage… Mountain?" Pearl tried to remember what Amethyst liked to call the colossal mounds of trash she'd picked up here and there.

"It's not garbage. It's junk." Amethyst said. She noticed Pearl was holding the big, shiny cymbal she'd been looking for and stared at it.

Pearl noticed Amethyst's pointed look. "Is this what you were looking for?" She asked, holding it out toward the smaller Gem. "It fell off the junk mountain and hit me. You know, it would be much easier to find things if you had an organizational sys… Uh," Pearl began to give Amethyst another cleanliness lecture, but stopped herself when she saw Amethyst roll her eyes. She was already getting off to a bad start. Again. "Sorry. Here."

Amethyst accepted the cymbal and mumbled, "Thanks." She set it on the ground next to her junk pile. She wanted to say something, but she didn't know what. She didn't know what she wanted Pearl to say either. The two Gems stood there looking at each other for a moment.

"Why were you looking for that anyway?" Pearl finally asked, to break the uncomfortable silence.

"To make noise with it," Amethyst answered quickly, glad to have something to say.

"Ah, of course," Pearl replied. "But don't you need two to play them?"

"Nah, I just like to hit stuff with it. Sometimes I find really cool noises." Amethyst replied, shrugging.

"Amethyst! You're a musician!" Pearl nearly shouted in excitement. "Well… Sort of. Finding sounds you like and putting them together is music."

"Ehh… I guess," Amethyst said. Despite her nonchalant tone, she was beaming. "Wanna hear one of my favorite noises? I call it 'Stick.'"

Pearl saw how excited Amethyst was and couldn't help but smile herself. "Of course," she answered.

"Okay! Hang on," Amethyst called as she headed toward a junk pile a few yards away. Moments later, she came back with a solid-looking stick, about the length of her forearm. "You're gonna love this!"

Amethyst threw the cymbal high into the air and jumped up after it. Once the cymbal reached its apex, Amethyst struck it hard with the stick. It made a loud clattering noise and raced toward the ground. When the cymbal connected with the solid surface below, it made a loud clang and sent out a shockwave that shook the nearest junk pile so severely it threatened to fall over. Amethyst fell back to the ground, laughing.

Pearl threw her hands up over her head, but recovered quickly. Amethyst looked at her expectantly. "That was certainly very… Loud?" Pearl offered.

"Thanks!" Amethyst took Pearl's comment as a compliment. "Wanna hear more?"

"Uh… That's okay," Pearl politely declined. "I, uh, actually came because I wanted to talk."

"Oh," Amethyst's face fell. She dropped her special stick and sat on the ground. She should've known.

"Would you mind if we spoke somewhere else?" Pearl asked. Amethyst's frown deepened. "It's nothing against you or your room; I just want to make sure there aren't any distractions, and well… Could we just go somewhere else?"

"Sure, whatever." Amethyst replied. She was already closing herself off-preparing for another lecture or maybe worse.


	6. A New Approach

"So, here we are!" Pearl exclaimed with a bit of nervous enthusiasm. She'd spent the better part of last night and this morning trying to think of ways to get to know Amethyst better. Finally she'd steeled herself and entered Amethyst's room in the Temple, only to have her mind go blank once she caught sight of the look on the smaller Gem's face. Obviously Amethyst was still quite upset over the other night. Pearl had mentally beaten herself up over her tactless approach ever since Garnet had pointed it out to her. Hopefully, this new approach would be more effective.

"Whoa!" Amethyst exclaimed, eyes widening as she took in everything before her. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but this was not it. Pearl had warped them to a hill with a huge cherry tree on top of it. The tree was in full bloom, complete with petals falling every so often and a divine scent like an expensive perfume. In the shade of the tree, there was a large blanket spread neatly into a perfect square. It was covered with dishes of all sorts of foods, some that Amethyst hadn't even seen before. "What's all this for?"

"Well, I know how you enjoy eating, so I thought I'd try my hand at preparing a few meals. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit more than I thought I would," Pearl explained as they sat on the blanket. She saw Amethyst eyeing the plates of food hungrily. Pearl was glad to see that her efforts weren't completely in vain, though she did actually enjoy preparing some of the foods. She lowered her voice and added, "This is sort of my apology for behaving the way I did the other night. I'm so sorry if I made you uncomfortable or hurt you, Amethyst. That was never my intention. You're a part of the team, and I'd never purposely do anything to harm you. You've got to know that."

Amethyst blushed and looked down at the ground. When she looked back up, Pearl saw tears rolling down her cheeks. Before Pearl could react, Amethyst choked out, "You're sorry? I should be the one apologizing. I'm the dummy that can't fuse. I thought you were gonna hate me for it!"

"Amethyst, no," Pearl gasped. She had her own tears falling now. "No, I know we disagree a lot but I could never hate you. You're a part of the team," she repeated. "I'm very sorry if I ever led you to believe I felt otherwise."

Amethyst crashed into Pearl and wrapped her arms around her in a hug. Pearl stiffened at the unexpected contact, but then relaxed into the embrace and wrapped her slender arms around the smaller Gem. Amethyst nuzzled Pearl's shoulder and shifted her position so she was sitting in Pearl's lap. Pearl closed her eyes and nestled her face into Amethyst's hair, still holding her close.


	7. A New Experience

Several hours after the heartfelt apologies and embraces had ended, the two Crystal Gems still sat together underneath the cherry tree on the hill. Amethyst sprawled out onto her back and rubbed her tummy.

"I'm stuffed. I still can't believe you don't even eat but you can cook like that," she said. Pearl smiled as she accepted the compliment for the fourth time that day.

"I could teach you, if you want," she offered.

"Nah, if I know how to cook too then there won't be an excuse to ask you to do it," Amethyst said with a giggle.

"That's true," Pearl laughed in response. She leaned back onto her elbows and looked up at the branches of the cherry tree. "Did you know this is my favorite tree?"

"How come?" Amethyst asked. "'Cause it's so pretty?"

"Sort of," Pearl answered. "It's so peaceful here and I love to watch the petals fall."

"Yeah. They look like they're dancing," Amethyst said, then added, "I bet this tree is happy. Pieces of it are always dancing. I know I'm always happy when I dance."

"You like to dance?" Pearl asked, surprised.

"Well yeah, sometimes," Amethyst answered. "It's fun!"

Pearl stood up and offered a hand to Amethyst. "Is now one of those times?"

Amethyst blushed and sat up. "It could be, if we had music."

Pearl laughed. "You don't need music to dance. But if you prefer, I can provide music."

"Yeah? How's that?" Amethyst asked. Pearl responded with a smile and started humming a tune Amethyst liked but didn't recognize. Amethyst finally accepted Pearl's outstretched hand and stood close to her. She continued to hold onto Pearl's hand and wrapped her other arm around the lithe Gem's waist. She smiled because she knew Pearl's idea of dancing was very different from hers, but she was willing to try Pearl's way if it would make her happy. After the emotional exhaustion of the day, she was honestly just glad to be physically close to her. Amethyst leaned against the older Gem and they started swaying back and forth to the tune of Pearl's song.

After a while, Amethyst said, "I really like this song. What's it about?"

Pearl opened her eyes just enough to look at Amethyst and replied with a smile, "Us."

Amethyst blushed and a bright light enveloped both of them.

Where just moments before, two Gems had been dancing, one tall, slender form now stood.

"Oh," the newly formed fusion uttered her first word. She opened her eyes and looked around. "Oh. Oh!" She exclaimed with mounting enthusiasm. "We fused! I mean, I fused."

Opal chuckled and gave herself a once-over. She stretched out all four of her arms and admired the soft lilac shade of her skin, then ran her fingers through her short, wavy hair and smiled. It felt great to be alive.


End file.
